An apt name for a game of baseball. Another of those Amstrad CPC sports games
that looked great but failed to deliver in the gameplay stakes, and having to
press the space bar every time just to continue playing is bonkers – well, it is
to me, especially when you're playing with a joystick. I was really hoping this
was going to be fun to play and I would be smashing home runs out of the stadium,
but I am rather disappointed with it. I can't fault the appearance as it is
definitely well presented and looks rather polished in the graphics and sprite
departments, but it just has something missing and I can't figure it out. Maybe
it's got too much realism, as I have watched many a baseball game on TV, only to
become completely bored out of my brain.

This game made a great coin-op and was quite realistic – for its time. There are
two tracks – the speed track and the stunt track – for you to race around in
your high-speed road car. However, there are other vehicles on the track, so
don't crash into them! Initially, you'll be impressed by the true 3D graphics,
and it's also fun at first to watch replays of your many crashes. Unfortunately
the game is really slow and the engine noises are terrible, but the worst thing
of all is the steering system, which makes negotiating the tracks a nightmare.
You're constantly fighting to keep the car on the road.

Mack is working on a construction site and has to complete the work on three
sections of the site. On the first level, you have to collect beams and place
them in the gaps in the platforms, then collect the jackhammer to secure them in
their place. On the second and third levels, you have to collect all the boxes.
Transport between platforms is accomplished by elevators and springboards which
you jump on. Watch out for Vandal and Osha; touch either of them and you lose
one of your three lives. This is based on a very old game, and it shows. Three
levels is not a lot, and the graphics are primitive. The first level is annoying
in that you are supposed to place all the beams before picking up the
jackhammer, but it's easy to pick it up accidentally and be unable to complete
the level.

This game was released in the same year as the inaugural Harricana event – a
snowmobile endurance race across the frozen landscape of Quebec in Canada.
Loriciel even entered a team for that event! The game consists of eleven stages
with twenty competitors taking part, and one competitor is eliminated at the end
of each stage. The boundaries of the course are marked with posts, and it can be
difficult to see which direction the course goes. Fortunately, you can stray
off-course, but you may crash into a tree or a log. The game is relatively easy
– I reached the ninth stage without any major problems – and the graphics are
detailed, although some horrendous colour schemes are used. There's some nice
music on the introduction as well.

Piloting a harrier jet, you launch from an aircraft carrier and fly over an
island towards the city, bombing everything as you go along. Enemy planes fly
towards you and can fire missiles at you, as can the tanks and launchers on the
ground. Once you've returned to your aircraft carrier, it's the same thing
again, but faster – and any game which is as repetitive as this will not grab
your attention for long. Both the graphics and the sound effects are poor and
this is one game which really shows its age.

Harvey Headbanger and Hamish Highball like nothing better than to fight with
each other, and this game sees you and either a computer or a friend taking
control of these two characters. When they collide, both of them bounce around
the screen uncontrollably for a while, but if you collect some cocktails, this
will enable them to recover more quickly. When Harvey and Hamish move, they
paint the tiles on the screen to their own colour, and cocktails will magically
appear if you can draw a circle in your colour. To win, you will need to do the
same thing to your opponent. You'll be addicted for quite a while, especially if
you can find a friend to play against, and there are five skill levels if you're
playing the computer, but ultimately the game is fairly limited.

This is an isometric shoot-'em-up in a similiar vein to Zaxxon. You have
two vehicles at your disposal; a jet plane and tank which you use alternately
between stages. You start with no shields, so it's imperative you increase your
armour by blowing up any enemy defences in between destroying the alien ships
that come at you. The gameplay is excellent as the scenery and enemies scroll
past quickly, so you really have to have your wits about you. The graphics are
relatively good for MODE 1, but it's the music that really stands out.

Another one of those very early Amsoft games which hasn't stood the test of
time. This one's a Pac-Man clone set in a hedge maze, where you, as the
gardener, have to pick up all the coins left in the maze. The power pills are
replaced by axes, and they don't last very long. It's both slow and
unchallenging, and the poor sound effects and crude graphics and presentation
are enough to put you off almost right away.

Part of Incentive's Double Gold series, this text adventure sees you taking on
the role of a poor old gentleman of the road who just wants a cosy room for the
night. Rifling through bins isn't a career move that brings big rewards, so you
end up looking for somewhere dark and quiet. You find a stunning building and no
one seems to be in! What luck! The adventure begins with you stuck inside the
house with only your trusty torch as a guide within the gloom. Exploring this
old building reveals many daunting things that send shivers down your scruffy
spine. An easy-to-understand parser and interesting puzzles with good graphics
for most locations.

As the Cold War neared its end, the Soviet Union developed their own equivalent
of the American AH-64 Apache helicopter gunship – the Mi-28 Havoc. You can fly
either one of these aircraft in this somewhat lacklustre shoot-'em-up. There are
three missions, all containing large amounts of enemy firepower on the ground
and in the air. You have three types of weapon available for you to destroy the
targets. If you make it to the end, you still have a huge aeroplane to shoot
down within a limited amount of time before it flies away; failure to do this
ends the game. The graphics are clear and detailed, but the sound effects are
poor, the landscape scrolls very slowly, and the game is slightly too difficult.